At Ma's Place

Frequently, the weather dictates what we do when Alannah comes over to Ma's place to play. My courtyard is wonderful in summer, but quite chilly in winter, requiring a jacket and hat most of the day. If Ma does not wear her jacket and hat, very quickly Alannah dispenses with her's, too. Lucky that Ma is a skinny little runt!

We have moved out of the 'street watching' phase. We used to do two sessions of at least 30 minutes each, but some days now we don' clamber onto the courtyard gate at all. This week it was replaced by cooking.

Fraught times for Ma! Don't fall off the bench. Don't burn yourself. Where did I leave the veggie knife. Ah, no! That isn't cooked yet. And yet internalising it, and presenting an air of equinimity to the outside world. Cooking involved gnocchi with mince, garlic, asparagus, broccolini, a tomato and basil prepared sauce, and fresh chives. Not forgetting the pinch of salt. Just like piggy requests from the picnicking otters in Helen Oxenbury's 'It's My Birthday'.

As Alannah's fine motor skills develop, we are doing more colouring, cutting'n'pasting, sorting and 'writing'. I collect as many little plastic containers as possible and she sorts by shape and colour, endlessly. Tip up. Then 'Abracadabra. Kazoo. Kazaam. Mix me up as much as you can.' You might know it as shuffling.

The toy box (what a grand investment that was!) contains an array of writing implements. One such, is a bag of very small crayons that are generally too small for her wee hands, but good for sorting into colours. And, Alannah discovered this week, for rolling under the coffee table to Sellie, who proceeded to tap it this way'n'that with with her pink-tipped paws, rolling upside down, and suddenly dashing off out of the room to reenter by another door. All to squeals of delight from Alannah.

And then our big 'advance' of the week. I have often sat Alannah at my computer desk, and written words on scrap pieces of paper for her to 'write' as well. She took to this with avengeance this week. Including a one hour session which she allowed me to photograph. No writing from me. And very little colour. She insisted she was not 'colour in' but writing. And that obviously was only done with a black felt pen. You will see a wide variety of pencil grips still employed. I am trying to show her the classic grip and she often gets it. But the dagger grip is a starting point. She can now do vertical and horizontal lines. Exaggerated arcs. And wee pinched little lines. This is the writing. And she knows what she wants to write. Telling me Mummy, Daddy, book, car, cat dog, circle, oval, star. Each time she does an up-then-down mark she says 'Ma' and it is easy to see why. Check out the angle of the head, and the tongue. There was a lot of effort devoted to this session this week. I think she might be ready for her own packet of textas. Only for use up here on my computer table. And, yes, I do have to take to my tabletop with jiffy and a scrubber to remove the over enthusiatic lines!